For the take-off in surf foil, we tend to use the reflexes of the wave catching in surfing, i.e. to put the board back on the wrong side. Unfortunately it doesn’t work like that in foil surfing. 

What we advise you to do is to concentrate on the take-off with a wave catch facing the beach and perpendicular to the wave. The foil will then try to take off like an airplane wing. The idea is to really press the board against the wall of the wave. 

When you are going to do your take-off, to straighten up you will have to stand up with your front foot, maybe even exaggerate putting it further forward than usual. Not to have the usual surfer’s stance and on the contrary, perhaps, for the beginnings, to have the front foot much more spread out than normal to really tackle the foil, to make it take off, to make it reposition itself and to play like that. 

For now, don’t try to turn and break the wave to the left or right but rather practice by going facing the beach. When you leave, it’s like surfing, you have to let yourself be carried by the foam, get up, stand up and then get lighter. We are not going to stand up when the foil is already up, otherwise it becomes very technical. 

And to go a little further, once you start to master a little bit the entry in waves, the fact of flying, it is really after the fact of having taken off in the wave that you start to turn and that you are going to try to catch the wall and then use the energy of the wave to leave the shoulder and pump towards the open sea to go and get the following lines.